DIANE ACKERMAN

NONFICTION

THE HUMAN AGE

New York Times
Bestseller

P.E.N. Henry
David Thoreau Award

"Diane Ackerman's vivid writing, inexhaustible
stock of insights, and unquenchable optimism have established her
as a national treasure, and as one of our great authors. If you've
read any of her previous books, you already know why you'll love
this latest one. If you haven't read her previous books,
you're now about to become addicted to Diane Ackerman."
— Jared Diamond

The Human Age is a beguiling, optimistic engagement
with the earth-shaking changes now affecting every part of our
lives and those of our fellow creatures — a wise book that will
astound, delight, and inform intelligent life for a long time to
come.

ONE HUNDRED NAMES FOR LOVE: A Memoir

Finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize

Finalist for the
National Book Circle Critics Award

"This book has done what no other
has for me in recent years: it has renewed my faith in the
redemptive power of love, the need to give and get it unstintingly,
to hold nothing back, settle for nothing less, because when flesh
and being and even life fall away, love endures. This book is
proof." — Abraham
Verghese, New York Times Book
Review

Everyone who cherishes the gift of language will cherish
Diane Ackerman's narrative masterpiece, One Hundred Names for
Love. It is an exquisitely written love story
and medical miracle story, one that combines science, inspiration,
wisdom, and heart.

DAWN LIGHT: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways To
Greet the Day

"It's easy to live in the moment when you're
immersed in Ackerman's glorious prose." —
Washington Post

Humans might luxuriate in the idea of
being “in” nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we
are nature — for “no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny
bipeds with the giant dreams.” Joining science’s devotion to detail
with religion’s appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an
impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution — especially
human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.

THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE, a War Story

Best-selling naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman
combines extensive research and an exuberant writing style to
re-create this fascinating, true-life story of Polish
zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who manage to save over three
hundred people from the Nazis during WWII. With animal names for
these "guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder
that the zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy
Star." Winner of the 2008 Orion Award.

AN ALCHEMY OF MIND: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain

"Ackerman fans know what to expect: the meeting of science
and sensuality, of nature and art, seen through the prism of
personal experience and expression..." —San Francisco
Chronicle

An Alchemy of Mind, through its beautiful and
electric prose, takes its readers on a journey to understanding the
mysteries of the brain and the marvel of the mind. "It distills the
hard, objective truths of science in order to yield vivid, heavily
anecdotal responses to a range of existential questions regarding
consciousness, human thought, memory, and the nature of
identity."

THE RAREST OF THE RARE: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds

In Rarest of the Rare, Ackerman journeys in search of
monarch butterflies and short-tailed albatrosses, monk seals and
golden lion tamarin monkeys: the world's rarest creatures and their
vanishing habitats.

CULTIVATING DELIGHT

“Diane Ackerman takes us down the garden path with a
renewed sense of awe and enlightened eyes.” — Los
Angeles Times

A
poetic book about gardens, growth, our relationship with nature,
the intimate lives of animal neighbors, the zaniness of some famous
gardeners; questions of mortality, garden etiquette, curiosity and
wonder; how a garden becomes an extension of the self and can give
an important shape to one’s life.

DEEP PLAY

"A fascinating subject, written in a swiftly moving and
sensuous prose." —Washington Post Book
World

A
closer look at the human saga, and how much of it revolves around
play. Deep play awakens the most creative, sentient, and
joyful aspects of our inner selves. More than anything else, our
passion for deep play has made us the puzzling and resplendent
beings we are.

A SLENDER THREAD: Rediscovering Hope at the Heart of
Crisis

"Lyrical and cosmic... her most personal and affecting
book." — Chicago Tribune

An
intimate and compassionate record of Diane's service as a counselor
on a suicide and crisis hotline, where she turns her attention to
the troubled lives of those suffering from what she calls the
“small demonology of our age” — anxiety, depression, and all the
trials, uncertainties, and conflicts of love.

A NATURAL HISTORY OF LOVE

"Beguiling... seductive... word for word, a Natural
History of Love is a pleasure." — Los Angeles Times Book
Review

Exploring the allure of adultery, the appeal of aphrodisiacs, and
the cult of the kiss. Enchantingly written and stunningly informed,
this "audaciously brilliant romp through the world of romantic
love" (Washington Post Book World) is the next best thing to love
itself.

THE MOON BY WHALE LIGHT

"Ms. Ackerman has a gift for sparkling, resonant language,
and her descriptions of various animals and habitats are alive with
verbal energy and delight... fascinating." —New York Times

In
a rare blend of scientific fact and poetic truth, the acclaimed
author explores the activities of whales, penguins, bats, and
crocodilians, plunging headlong into nature and coming up with
highly entertaining treasures.

A
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES

"Delightful . . . gives the reader the richest possible
feeling of the worlds the senses take in." —The New York Times
(Literature—Classics & Contemporary)

In
celebration of our ability to smell, taste, touch, hear, and see,
Ackerman weaves together scientific facts with lore, history, and
description to create an enchanting account of how humans
experience the world.

TWILIGHT OF THE TENDERFOOT

"When Diane Ackerman wonders, her eyes go wide as
chuckwagon chow plates; when she thinks, her brain flashes like a
panhandle sky in storm. Because she knows the land of the
heart, she's exquisitely rendred the heart of this
land." —Albert
Goldbarth

Twilight of the Tenderfoot is a book rendering the
experience of nature and place into an intimate and magical
affair.